Guitar Treble Bleed, Part 1: Evaluating Capacitors

http://www.planetz.com/?p=240 .
In part one of this video, I explain what treble bleed is, and how to evaluate and select the right cap. I demonstrate my G&L ASAT III which has a treble bleed cap on the master volume, and I compare that with my Epiphone Riviera P93 which has no treble bleed caps (yet).

The caps I try here are: Silver Mica 100pf, 390pf and 1000pf, a tiny 1000pf ceramic cap, and Sprague Orange Drop (polypropylene) 1000pf, 3300pf, and 6800pf.

In the part two, I'll explain some basic soldering skills, and show how to solder the caps onto the pots.

For my video on how to remove electronics from a semi-hollow body guitar, see my other video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS9ZB_Sgi6Q

Like this video? Please consider making a donation (of any amount) at http://www.planetz.com/?page_id=1272

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Treble
• Bleed
• Volume
• potentiometer
• capacitor
• electronics
• pickups
• G&L
• Asat
• III
• Epiphone
• Riviera
• P93
• Alnico
• Ceramic
• Magnet
• Sprague
• Orange
• Drop
• Polypropylene
• silver
• mica
• tone
• DIY
• howto
• Logitech
• Quickcam
• Pro
• 9000
• Sony
• Vegas

[sixstringpsycho]

Say it ain't so! What happens if you solder one to a tone pot? Just curious.

[johnplanetz]

@sixstringpsycho - love that song :) A tone pot is typically wired in parallel with the guitar signal, as a capacitor in series with a variable resistor (pot) to ground. Adding a cap across the two lugs of the tone pot would give a path for the high frequencies directly to ground, thereby rolling off some treble, even when the tone cap is up full. See my videos on tone caps for more examples, and explanation of the circuit.

[U2wild]

Great video I just bought a kramer 220FR with the volume bleed and you helped me figure out how to use it- thanx !

[johnplanetz]

@U2wild - Great to hear! Enjoy that new guitar!

[louie0108]

hi! i got my guitar's both tone knob and volume knob on 10, but it still sounds dull. i want to know what seems to be the problem with it?? any help would be appreciated thanks



[johnplanetz]

@louie0108 - see the other videos in my channel for ideas. You'll need to experiment a bit. I'd suggest unsoldering everything, and use alligator leads to connect it back up one component at a time. Connect one pickup directly to the jack and see how that sounds. Then add in your volume knob. Then the tone, etc.

[johnplanetz]

@issofunky - not a particularly helpful comment. All archtops are made from pressed plywood. The pickups are P-90 single coils, not P-100 humbuckers. Yes the amp is cheap- but it's constant throughout this test, so any differences heard are from the caps, not the amp. (And the the VT amp modelling is taken directly from the acclaimed VOX Tonelab series, not Digitech). I agree that the stock pickups are rather dull, I ended up replacing them with VVG P-90's as I demo'd in my other videos.

[delusgr]

This vid's great. First time I saw it was almost two years ago when I had absolutely no idea about electronics. Now after my first tube amp build it still is as interesting as it was then, maybe even more now that understand things better. Cudos, man.

[rugbynut]

Really useful video dude, thanks! :)



[vikenemesh]

@vikenemesh I'm done now. sounds great, thx!

[vikenemesh]

I'm doing this right now, thanks for the idea!

[johnplanetz]

@delusgr - congrats on the amp build! I want to do that too some day :)